Ioannis Polykretis, a first-year PhD student, advised by Prof. Konstantinos Michmizos at ComBra Lab, was selected to receive a $5,000 Fellowship Grant from the Gerondelis Foundation for his research on the computational role of astrocytes, the most abudant, yet long-neglected, brain cells that are now being revealed to be key components in processing, transferring and learning information in the brain.
The Gerondelis Fellowship will help Ioannis to continue his efforts in a new computational domain that one could call "Computational Astrocyence" and unleash this work into Brain-morphic Robotics. Polykretis earned his 5-year Diploma from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Within his first year, Ioannis has an 8-page paper accepted for full oral presentation in the International Conference of Neuromorphic System (ICONS), to be held in Tennessee this July, entitled "A Neural-Astrocytic Network Architecture: Astrocytic calcium waves modulate synchronous neuronal activity."
Department of Computer Science